


Burn the Candle at Both Ends

by stephanericher



Series: 31 Days of Horoscopes [30]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Femslash February, Long-Distance Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 15:12:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9662990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: 2/10: The period just ahead of you promises a lot of luck and success. The initiatives you will take in your career or personal life will come off without a hitch. You should think about trying some kind of new activity on a professional level. Take advantage of all the good luck in the air. Don't be afraid to burn the candle at both ends now and live life to the fullest.





	

**Author's Note:**

> so this 31-day challenge is based on the wonderful [31-Day Horoscope Challenge by @icandrawamoth](http://archiveofourown.org/series/621022). Simply: read your horoscope for the day from horoscope.com (Aquarius for me); use it as a writing prompt.

She’s been sitting on the potential for months, preparing as much as she can without counting too much on the possibility. She’d thought the last interview had gone well, but it’s always impossible to know what potential edges other candidates have, experience and charm and connections that Alex just doesn’t, and just because she knows she’s qualified doesn’t mean she’s shown it adequately. And she hasn’t told anyone; she doesn’t want to get their hopes up or make things weird, inject an ultimately-false possibility into anything. She doesn’t want to disappoint them if it doesn’t go as she hopes it will, and she’s more than a little bit superstitious about it. Maybe that’s stupid, but it makes her feel like she’s got a little more control over the situation.  
  
The call comes in the middle of the night; she’s half-asleep and still pretty sure she’s dreaming when they read through the details and tell her they’ll send all the forms she needs to her email, reiterating the salary they’ll offer her, the same figure as before, deadlines and details that leave her murmuring affirmations and small platitudes until she’s left with nothing on the other line, wide awake. She kind of wants to scream, but settles for rolling over and burying her face in the pillow, hugging the sheets around her. It still feels like some bizarre dream, that she’d landed a professional coaching gig in Japan—she’s moving to Kyoto, holy shit, Kyoto.  
  
Alex pinches herself; there’s a red mark but she doesn’t wake up in a different position with her phone still plugged in. She grabs her laptop from the nightstand and wakes it up, gnawing on her lip. There it is, in her inbox, from the official email account with all of her details. It’s real. It’s happening. She still has so much to pack, so many arrangements to make; she has to find a place to live over there and get to know the rest of the coaches and her new players, learn more about their playing styles and figure out their opponents and okay, as a big picture it’s pretty paralyzing. But right now she needs to call Masako.  
  
She’d come close to telling her a few times, tripped over her tongue and pushed the words back, switched the subject to something else. Masako is the person whose hopes Alex hadn’t wanted to dash the most, the person she wanted to disappoint least. It’s not a secret she could keep if they were living together, but then that’s the issue, isn’t it? The distance from Akita to Kyoto is more than trivial, but it’s way less than the distance from Akita to Los Angeles and with no ocean and no national borders to divide them; she’ll have the offseason to potentially spend up there with Masako. It won’t be easy, but it can’t be harder than this.  
  
Alex shifts back against the headboard, closing her eyes and pushing her glasses up on top of her head. It’s always easier to just imagine Masako in front of her, especially this late at night when the lighting’s bad and even with her glasses on it’s still kind of a messy blur.  
  
“Hi.”  
  
“Masako, hey,” says Alex. “What’s up?”  
  
Her own voice sounds weird; she’s already giving herself away but she’s waited so long to say this and even now a minute or two feels like double the time she’s already waited.  
  
“Just going over video,” says Masako. “What about you?”  
  
Alex breathes in. “I got a new job. I’m coaching for a new pro women’s league. In Kyoto.”  
  
Silence. She waits.  
  
“Alex,” says Masako.  
  
Her voice is thick and chipping like an old porcelain cup; Alex squeezes the phone tighter in her hand.  
  
“It doesn’t pay that much and I’ll be busy during the season and it’s not Akita but—”  
  
“Alex,” Masako says again, firmer this time—then, “Why didn’t you tell me?”  
  
“I didn’t want to jinx it,” says Alex. “I didn’t want to make you hope; it was a long shot and I’m still kind of surprised I got it—but I did mean what I said about making an effort to be together more.”  
  
“I know you did,” says Masako. “I’m just so—so glad; I’m so proud of you. Congratulations.”  
  
“Thanks,” says Alex.  
  
She’s smiling so hard it almost hurts.  
  
“When are you moving?”  
  
“A month and a half, sooner if I can. I want to see you before this all starts.”  
  
“Yes. I’d like that, too.”  
  
She wishes she was there already, that she could take Masako’s hand in hers and—well, they’d already be embracing by this point, probably; they wouldn’t have to get closer.  
  
“I have a bunch of details in this email; I can send you the schedule and everything I know.”  
  
“That would be great.”  
  
“Good.”  
  
Alex hurriedly copies and pastes some of the links and details and sends the email off.  
  
“Aren’t you usually asleep by now?” says Masako.  
  
“Oh,” says Alex. “Yeah. They woke me up to tell me I got the job, so…I thought I’d call you. You’ll be asleep when I wake up.”  
  
“Thank you for telling me,” says Masako, and she’s using that ultra-serious voice she only uses when she absolutely means something, and Alex wishes again that she could be there physically.  
  
“Masako…you know I wouldn’t wait.”  
  
“I know, but I wanted to hear you say it.”  
  
Wait—did Masako just fake her out over the phone? “Ugh.”  
  
“You’re the one who didn’t tell me until you got the job.”  
  
“Are you mad about that?”  
  
“I mean…I understand why you didn’t. But a little bit, yeah. Just—don’t do it next time? If you’re thinking about something important, I want to be there for that decision.”  
  
That’s more than fair.  
  
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t even thinking about it that way.”  
  
“I know. I love you.”  
  
Alex pulls the covers tighter around her body. “I love you, too.”  
  
“Are you going to be able to get back to sleep?”  
  
“Yeah,” says Alex.  
  
She feels calmer now, like she’s taken a step back. Her eyelids are feeling heavy, and she slides down against the mattress. Masako stays on the line without asking if she should, and just hearing the background, her breathing and the squeaking of sneakers on hardwood from her game video, is enough to lull Alex back to sleep.


End file.
